Fate Lost Traveler
by Psychometry
Summary: Fujimaru Ritsuka is given one chance to fix the world that he failed to save. A true Holy Grail sends him one year into the past. Ritsuka loses many of his memories from that past world, but they grab at him from the darkness. When he awakens, he finds himself in a new, but familiar life. Now, he must overcome this challenge, his last challenge. Let's follow him, shall we?
1. Prologue: Another chance

**A/N: I don't know how long it's been since I've been on this site and posting stories. I won't bore you with things before the story. So, just enjoy**

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Once upon a time, an ordinary boy with no special qualities to speak of, lost everything.

In the face of utter despair, with the lifeless eyes of those that he fought for surrounding him, he was offered a deal.

A hand, reaching out, a small smooth hand. Without hesitation, before the person offering it even spoke, the boy reached out and grabbed that hand. It felt that if he gripped it any stronger, it would shatter. Despite the despair the boy had found himself in, he felt a true smile forming.

"I am what many lives have been lost over. I am what you believed you would never need. I am the Holy Grail. Not this false amalgamation of magecraft that has gone awry, but a true Holy Grail. You smile at me, yet your body is weak. You cannot stand, yet your eyes tell me that you do not wish to give up here."

"…"

Although the boy tried to speak, his throat was in so much pain, that no noise came out. Looking up at this figure that he could only describe as "angelic," he simply nodded.

"Then… speak. Tell me your wish. I am a true Holy Grail and will grant your any one wish in totality. I need only hear it from your mouth."

A second small hand reached down and caressed his throat. Though he did not feel as if any magecraft had been used on him, the pain immediately subsided. A fleeting thought questioned if he had just received a wish from the Holy Grail in that healing touch.

"Now, speak, mage. You, who wanted naught but to save those who now lie dead around you. You, who fought against the world. You, who stick so dearly to your ideals."

"I…"

There was obviously only one thing the boy could wish for. He already knew that, but he hesitated. Not because he thought his wish was wrong, but because he feared the judgement of this ultimate figure in front of him.

Slowly, he shook those thoughts away. He tightly gripped that small hand as he looked into the dark eyes looking down at him.

"I wish… for one more chance."

Immediately after the words left his mouth, he noticed bright lights floating around him. The small hand released him and the figured back away a few steps.

"I will grant this wish for you, so please. Go do what you believe you must. This timeline can never be erased or undone. What has happened here will always remain in the back of your memories, biting at you, begging you to fall into despair. You will have to overcome your darkness by yourself."

The boy's smile never faded, even when the girl had released his hand. Though it pained him greatly, he slowly rose to his feat. He took one step forward, his step making a disgusting sound as it splashed a bit of the sea of blood under him.

He slowly lowered his head and bowed to the figure in front of him.

"Thank you, Hol-… No… Before I leave…" He rose and showed that gentle true smile of his to the figure one more time. "May I ask your name?"

A small giggle escaped the figure's mouth.

"Please, that is one thing you must figure out on your own. I am already granting your wish, so do this on your own. Just as I have appeared before you in this world, I will once again appear before you in the next."

"Alright. I'll find you in this next world. Thank you."

"Mm. Be careful. This is your last chance. Please… do your best out there, Ritsuka-san."

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**A/N: Hey guys, it's been a long time. Well, that is if any of you who read my old stories still even use this site. Besides the couple short things I posted, I have no idea how long it's been.**

**Honestly, I had so much fun writing Brought into the Darkness that I thought I would never have that much fun writing a story again, so there was no point. I tried a couple of times, but ended up losing interest in them, as you can see if you read The Ever-changing world.**

**Anyways, I had a couple ideas and I'd like to try to write something original in the Fate universe. Since I'm lazy when it comes to creating characters generally, I'll be using many existing characters, but they'll fulfill completely different roles for the most part.**

**I hope you guys enjoy this and I'm glad to be back.**


	2. Holy Grail War I

**I hope you all enjoyed the little prologue. I think any good story needs a short prologue. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this. Please read my notes in the bottom after finishing this chapter, thanks. Enjoy!**

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"My wish…"

"'My wish is for my lovely little sister to pamper me every day…'"

A soft voice reached the ears of the half-awake boy, but he hid his smirk and pretended to still be asleep.

"Rin… watch out…"

"Eh? What's happening in that dream of yours?"

A devious plot had formed in Ritsuka's mind and his little sister was the last person who would catch on before it was too late.

"It's… coming for you…"

"Eh? What is? Onii-chan!?"

Rin slammed her hands onto the bed as she asked her question. The second her hands touched the sheets, the blanket shot up and Ritsuka grabbed his sister and dragged her onto the bed, running his fingers along her sides.

"It's that terrible youkai that tickles little sisters! Haha!"

"Ahh! HaahaaAhhaa! O-Onii-chaAAha!" No words could escape his sister's mouth through the laughter. She struggled to get free but could do nothing against the strength of her brother.

After a solid ten seconds of this, he released her and she immediately fell face first onto the bed, her back rising and falling as she struggled to get more air into her lungs.

"It's… too early… for this… Onii-chan…"

Rin slowly sat up and gave a great sigh, having finally returned her breathing to normal.

Ritsuka rubbed the back of his head and gave her a mischievous smirk.

"I'm just bonding with my precious little sister in the morning. How could anyone fault me for that?"

"That's not the point!"

"Ritsuka! Rin! You're going to be late if you don't hurry up and eat!"

"Okay!" They both yelled back.

"Make sure you get ready, Onii-chan. You've been late to school too many times already."

Ritsuka just laughed it off as his sister stormed out of the room.

This was one version of the daily routine of Fujimaru Ritsuka, an ordinary 17-year-old boy with no special qualities to speak of. And this was the ordinary life he lived, with a mother, father, and little sister.

With a yawn, he finally stood and threw on his unremarkable brown jacket and pants that made up the Homurahara Academy uniform. He grabbed his back filled with textbooks and unfinished homework and headed downstairs.

Rin was already eating when he came down the stairs and when their eyes met, she looked away with a "hmph". This was the usual way things would go and she would be over it by the time she got off of school for the day.

Fujimaru Rin was his little sister, 12 years old and just starting junior high this year. Her delicate brown hair was pulled into twintails, tied with small blue ribbons, a favoured style of hers, something Ritsuka would often comment was "childish, but it's cute on you."

Sitting down at the table next to his sister, he gave his thanks before quickly digging into the simple breakfast in front of him.

"Ah, Ritsuka, aren't you going to be late at this rate? It's a 30-minute walk, right?" A woman with beautiful silky white hair and deep red eyes poked her head out from the kitchen to look at the boy.

"Eh?" Ritsuka glanced at the clock on the counter which read '7:49'. "What!? Rin, if you love your Onii-chan so much, please wake me up before playing pranks on me next time!"

He dashed to the door and quickly threw on his shoes.

"I tried to wake you up for over ten minutes before you started talking in your sleep!"

"Is that so? Good job, then! Just try a little bit harder for my sake next time…" With that, he sprinted out the door and down the road.

Fuyuki City was a fairly large city and, because of that and some other factors, Ritsuka attended a school that was a good distance from his house. Of course, he could take a train, but he had discovered early on that the time it would take him to go to a train station and wait was about the same amount of time it would take him to walk there if he took shortcuts.

"Ahh! If I didn't sleep through every alarm I've ever set, I'm sure I'd be the most punctual student in the school!"

Sweat was beginning to glisten on his face as he gave his all in running. At some point during the run, he slipped his cellphone out of his pocket to check the time. It had just turned 7:58. He had two minutes left to run a distance that he normally walked in over ten.

Even though he knew that it would be physically impossible to make it on time, he still pushed and gave it his all until he reached the school gates, which were now closed.

Ritsuka was bent over, hands on his knees, gulping down as much air as he could. His lungs felt like they were on fire and his legs seemed like they would give out any second. For once, he was glad to just sit in a desk all day. But first came the problem of getting in.

"Hm, you seem to be in a bit of trouble. Maybe you could use some help?"

He was just catching his breath when somebody spoke to him from behind. He stood straight and turned to see a girl with the same school's uniform on. Wavy brown hair fell to her waist and the same coloured eyes stared at him, a smirk on her face.

"You're…?"

"That's not important, right? You want to get in without being marked late, right?" The girl took out her cellphone and checked the time. It was 8:06. "We're only six minutes late. I can get you in without them marking you late though, if you would like."

This girl seemed pretty suspicious to the boy, but he had to admit that he just wanted to get in without being chewed out, so he nodded.

"Then, just follow behind me." She looked to the side of the road, where a bike had been discarded. Well, what was left of a bike was there. The tires were so torn up that there was no way it would be safe to ride. The girl ran over to it and, with a bit of a struggle, rolled it over. "Come on."

The two walked up to the gate just as a patrolling teacher, likely waiting to see if any late students were trying to sneak in, walked up to it.

He sighed upon seeing them and opened the gate.

"What are you two…?" A heavier sigh escaped his mouth when he looked at the girl. "Kishinami-kun, again?"

"Well you see, it was really this guy's fault." She said, pointing her finger at Ritsuka. "He was in my way, so I ran into him with my bike and it got torn up."

The teacher just shook his head as if he wasn't buying it at all.

"And now you're dragging others into this? Let's see, you're…"

"Fujimaru Ritsuka, Sensei."

"Ah, you're the boy from 2-C. Sorry about this, you can go on inside. Kishinami-kun, you come with me to the faculty office first."

"Yeeeeah."

As if accepting that her plan had worked, she just dropped the bike where she stood. The teacher closed the gate and began to lead the girl into the school building. Kishinami turned around and gave the boy a thumbs up.

"Eh? Her whole plan was to sacrifice herself for my sake? Just what kind of guy am I?"

Not wanting her sacrifice to go in vain, Ritsuka headed to his class. Luckily, it was still homeroom, so he probably wouldn't be marked late.

He sighed one last time before sliding open the door for 2-C. And immediately, as would happen to anyone coming in late, all eyes were drawn to him. He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as he walked in and tried his best to put on a smile.

"Sorry, I'm late, Sensei, but the teacher on patrol told me to just go straight to class." He thought he could peacefully go straight to his seat, but instead he found himself dodging a piece of chalk that was thrown at a high velocity right at his head. It shattered on impact with the door "Eh? Um, Taiga-sensei, could it be that you're… angry?"

"That's right!" Fujimura Taiga yelled as she chucked another piece of chalk the boy's way, which he also dodged. "If it was just one or two times, I wouldn't have a problem with it, but how many times does that make it now!?"

"W-Well, you see, my little sister woke me up too late…"

"We have alarm clocks for a reason! Even cellphones have alarms nowadays!" She looked ready with another piece of chalk but lowered her hand. "Go on and sit down, Fujimaru-kun."

"Yes…"

Ritsuka took his seat, which was almost dead centre in the classroom. Two seats back from the front row and right smack in the middle column. Unfortunately for him, this made it harder for him to do anything besides take notes, as he was one of the students that Taiga kept a close eye on at all times.

This was the ordinary life of Fujimaru Ritsuka.

From teasing his little sister to being late to school, everything was just as ordinary as it had ever been.

And yet…

_Your wish…_

"Wha?"

Just as Ritsuka was beginning to zone out from whatever Taiga was telling the class, a soft-spoken voice reached his ears. It felt strangely familiar, but at the same time, he knew that he would remember the face of a person with a voice as beautiful as this.

_I'll grant it._

Slowly, he turned in his seat, but he only saw the same person who had always sat there, a person he already knew well and had heard the voice of many times. A Japanese beauty sat behind him, the talk of the school with long black hair and crimson eyes, a girl he was fortunate enough to have been friends with since his first day of high school.

She tilted her head as he turned around with saying word.

"Ritsuka?"

"Eh?" He snapped out of it quickly at the sound of her voice.

"You're just staring at me."

"Oh, uh… sorry, Ryuuko."

As he was turning back in his seat, he heard the voice of his teacher once again yelling from the front of the classroom.

"Fujimaru! Shirokami! Is homeroom just a joke to you!?"

Laughter ensued from the rest of the class, and Ritsuka just sighed. Ryuuko let out a light laugh as well as even she could tell that the laughter was directed at Taiga and not the two of them.

Classes passed by that day without anything significant or unusual happening. When it came to lunch time, Ritsuka excused himself to go buy a sandwich from the cafeteria. As he passed by the stairs though, he thought he heard that voice again.

_Ritsuka…_

He looked up the stairs, but nobody was there. And, as if in a trance, he felt compelled to walk up the stairs. After the first set, that feeling lingered and walked up the remaining stairs that led to the rooftop.

The roof was off-limits during lunch, so the door was locked when he reached the top. That never stopped some students from picking the lock, or "borrowing" the key from the faculty room. He peeked through the small window on the door but saw nobody.

"Huh…" He wanted to just walk away, but that feeling still tugged at him. Just when he was about to give up on the idea though, he turned around to see a familiar face standing there. "Ah… Kishinami-san… right?"

She tilted her head, puzzled.

"Oh, you're the guy from this morning. Um… Kamijou?"

"I hope that you're messing with me and not really trying."

"Yeah, yeah, now get out of the way please, Fujimaru-kun." He moved to the side and she gave him a smirk as she walked up to the door and stuck a key in it. With a twist and another twist of the doorknob, the door opened. She took a couple steps out, but held the door open, looking back at the boy. "Aren't you coming?"

"Huh?"

"You were trying to get up here, right?"

Ritsuka just realized all she had seen was him standing by the door waiting, so it made sense.

"Ah, yeah… I guess…"

"?"

He accepted the invitation and walked out onto the rooftop with her. As opposed to this morning, there were some clouds in the sky now, but still doing little to block out the sunlight.

There were a few benches situated near the edges of the rooftop. A fence lined the entire rooftop, presumably to prevent unfortunate accidents from happening that would leave the school in a troubled position.

Kishinami walked over to one of those benches and sat down. Ritsuka hadn't noticed it before, but she was carrying a small paper bag, which she reached into and took out a plastic-wrapped sandwich.

Without really thinking about it and because she said nothing against it, he walked over and sat next to her.

The tugging feeling had subsided, but he still felt a bit strange and just watched her as she unwrapped the sandwich and began to eat.

"… Fujimaru-kun."

"Yes?"

"I don't mean to come off as rude, but I would appreciate it if you didn't stare at me while I at. I think most people consider that rude."

Ritsuka shook his head and blinked a few times before facing her and smiling.

"Sorry about that, I don't know what's wrong with me today. Maybe I'm not getting enough sleep."

"That's quite the talk for someone who was late for school because he overslept." Ritsuka couldn't argue with that and didn't even attempt to. "Hm? Did you eat already, Fujimaru-kun? I assumed you were coming up here to eat."

"Ah… something like that, I guess. I ended up forgetting to go buy lunch."

That smirk snuck its way back onto Kishinami's face as she started to speak.

"If you wanted to share my lunch so badly, you could have just asked nicely." She held out the half of the sandwich that she had already taken a few bites out of. "Go on then."

Ritsuka was more confused than embarrassed as he took the partially eaten half of the sandwich.

"Isn't it strange to give somebody you barely know a piece of food you've eaten from?" What he was holding was more a quarter of the sandwich than a half. There was a bit of the meat left, but it was more bread than meat and a bit of lettuce. "What's the thing people talk about? Oh yeah, like an indirect kiss?"

"?" She tilted her head quizzically. "You read too much manga, Fujimaru-kun."

In a comedy, he surely would have had an overdramatic fall at that statement.

"Ahaha… I guess so."

"Besides, why would I give you more of the sandwich than myself. I specifically gave you that have because I had already eaten from it. You should be grateful."

"… I think I should feel worse knowing your true motivation." He let a sigh escape and took a bite of the unimpressive sandwich. It was just bought from the school store and didn't taste special.

Kishinami reached into the paper bag and took out a can of coffee, probably from one of the school's vending machines. Drinking coffee with your lunch when you're a high school student came off as a bit strange, but it wasn't the first time he had seen it, so he didn't comment on it.

After a few sips of the coffee, without looking at him, she held the can out towards him. Ritsuka hesitated for a second to make sure he wasn't misunderstanding her and that she was actually offering him a sip.

"You don't have anything to drink either, right?"

Ritsuka smiled at that and took the can from her hand. He quickly finished off the rest of the sandwich and took a modest sip from the can before handing it back to the girl. He felt a bit bad and almost offered to buy her another drink, but she didn't seem to mind as she continued to slowly eat her half of the sandwich and take sips from the coffee.

After she was finished, she stood and raised one arm as she stretched.

"Ah, that was good. Anyways, you should remember to buy your lunch before coming up here next time. Later, Fujimaru-kun."

"Ah…"

Kishinami stopped at the door and turned back to him.

"Hm? Is something the matter?"

A question had popped into his head, but he was trying to find a way to ask it without coming off as creepy. When nothing came to mind, he gave up and decided to ask it in the most straightforward way possible.

"Kishinami-san… Do you have a wish?"

"A wish?"

"Ah, um… Sorry, that's a weird question considering we only just-"

"I do." She interrupted. When the boy looked at her face, she was looking away from him. "A very important one. I'm sure most people have a wish that they would give up anything to have granted. Ahem." She cleared her throat. "If that's all, I'll see you tomorrow then, Fujimaru-kun."

Before he could respond, she grabbed the paper bag with the trash in it and left the rooftop.

Ritsuka sat there for a few more minutes before remembering that he had told Ryuuko that he was just going to buy something before eating in the classroom with her. A feeling that he would regret that later washed over him.

"Oh well." He stood and stretched just as the girl had. "Hm?"

Sunlight glinted off of something on the bench and when he reached for it, he saw that it was a key. Instantly, he recognized it as the key Kishinami had used to open the roof door. Maybe she had left it on purpose since he was still up there so he could lock the door? For some reason, Ritsuka doubted that.

He made sure to lock the door as he left and shoved the key in his pocket, mentally noting to return it to the girl when he saw her again. He had a feeling that he shouldn't return it to the faculty office.

Ritsuka sat back in his seat. Classes had just ended and everybody else was packing their bags and leaving, but he just sat there and stared at the ceiling. Today had been an eventful day in his otherwise uneventful life.

He had lunch with Kishinami, a girl he had just met, even sharing her lunch at that. And he had to beg for forgiveness from Ryuuko since lunch had almost ended by the time he returned to the classroom. Luckily, she hadn't waited for him, but he figured she was still mad at him even if she denied it.

A tap on his forehead brought him back to his senses. Speak of the devil, when he leaned his head back farther to check who it was, Ryuuko was looking back at him. He sat up and turned around.

"Want to come shopping with me on the way back?"

"The shopping district is the opposite way from my house, you know."

She frowned.

"You know, when a girl asks you out, you're supposed to accept it without question."

"What kind of world do you think we live in!?" He was glad that she didn't seem angry from earlier and so he nodded. "But yeah, I was thinking that I would like to pick up a few things anyways, so why not?"

"That's better." Ryuuko nodded her approval and so the two set off.

Small talk accompanied them on their way until they finally reached the shopping district, where Ritsuka quickly learned that when she had asked him to come shopping with her, she actually meant that she wanted him to hold all of the bags for her, including her schoolbag. So he somehow ended up with bot schoolbags and five other bags filled with groceries hanging on his arms.

"That should do it." Ryuuko said with a satisfied nod. "That should cover this week as far as food goes. Didn't you say you had something you wanted to get too, Ritsuka?"

"I think my arms are going to fall off by the time we get to your place if I carry anything more…"

"Act like a man for once." She shook her head and started leading the way.

The walk to her house was also in the opposite direction of Ritsuka's house, but at that point he didn't care.

They strolled up to her apartment building just as the sun was beginning to set. As luck would have it, some time after she had left for school, the elevator had broken, so Ritsuka walked up five flights of stairs with all of the groceries. He was sure his arms were going to give out at any moment the whole way, but he managed to push his way through.

Ryuuko opened the door to her apartment and held it open with her foot as she grabbed the bags from the boy, which she was clearly struggling to hold despite the small amount of time she would even need to hold them. Seeing that, Ritsuka had to wonder how he had even managed that feat.

"Well then, I'll see you tomorrow, Ritsuka. Thanks for your help."

"Mm. See you tomorrow, Ryuuko."

With that, she retreated into her apartment. As soon as the door had closed, the boy turned and began the long walk back.

From the school, Ryuuko's apartment building was around a 30-minute walk. And his house was 30 minutes from the school in the opposite direction. So, it looked to him like he had at least an hour of walking to look forward to.

Releasing the bags had made some of his stamina return, so he figured it wouldn't be a problem, but he called his mother to make sure she knew he would be late. Though, he was already out much later than usual by that point.

A cool breeze was blowing by him, improving the quality of the walk significantly.

Night had already come. Some people were afraid to walk around at night, especially in areas with few people, but Ritsuka enjoyed it. He felt relaxed when he could just walk and sort his thoughts.

Though, he had to admit, he didn't have many worries. The voice he had heard earlier was the only thing bothering him, but no matter how much he thought on it, he couldn't come up with anything besides him just hearing things.

After that thought coming up several times, he finally decided to just forget about it. There was no way he was going to be able to explain it as anything other than mishearing he figured.

"I'd like to say that I'm not getting enough sleep, but Kishinami was right..."

He looked up towards the sky as he walked, taking in the thousands of stars just in his field of vision.

Suddenly, that voice from earlier echoed in his head.

_Your wish… I'll grant it._

"Wish… Do I have something like that?" He thought about it for a second. Money wasn't particularly important to him and he had a great family and good friends. There wasn't much he could think of to wish for. "I guess… I'd like life to be a bit more interesting."

A small speck of light briefly streaked across the sky.

_A shooting star?_

_KKKKKKSHHH_

The sound of something massive could be heard in the not-so-far distance. Looking in that direction, a small set of stairs led to "Inukadoma Park." Considering it was just a park, he couldn't imagine it was anything except the sound of a tree falling, but why it would have fallen in the middle of the night like this, he had no idea. He could understand if it was storming or something, but it clearly wasn't.

Then he felt that tugging feeling from earlier again. It was trying to pull him towards the park. Last time he had followed that feeling, nothing eventful had happened. Well, he had ended up eating lunch with a random girl and getting scolded by his friend for ditching her during lunch.

Everything in his being except for that one feeling was telling him that he should just continue on his way home, but against his better judgment, he ran up the stairs and into the park.

It was so dark, it was hard to see anything off the lit cement paths. The trees created an extra layer of darkness around the park, blocking out the meek bit of moonlight.

Ritsuka listened for any sounds. It was silent for a bit, but then he heard it. It sounded like something heavy was slamming on the ground over and over again, in a seemingly random pattern.

_KKKKKKKSSHHH_

Then he heard the sound again, likely a tree falling. Sucking in his breath, trying to calm his heart, he ran off the path into the darkness. This park wasn't particularly large, but it was well-sized. It took him a few minutes of running until he reached a small clearing in the middle. Nothing was set up here. No playsets, nothing. It was, more likely, a place for people to have peaceful picnics. Or it was just a coincidence that it existed and the park didn't care to tell people about it.

But, that thought was in the far back of his mind considering the scene in front of him.

A large man in what he recognized as Chinese armour was moving inhumanly fast through a series of swipes and stabs with a spear.

"_Raaarghhh!_"

A strange roar came from the large man, something Ritsuka would never expect to hear from a human. But, judging by the way this man moved, he wasn't quite sure that what he was looking at was a human.

And to boot, the one who was on the receiving end of those inhumanly fast swipes and stabs was a hooded figure. He nimbly dodged and ducked every attack, seemingly with little effort.

"Haha, is that all you have, Lu Bu? In life you considered yourself the greatest general, but I can't say that I'm seeing that now!"

From the voice, Ritsuka figured it had to be a man under the hood. His cloak swayed with every move and revealed the shining armour underneath. As far as he could see, the man was wielding no weapon, but he was proved wrong a second alter when the man swept up with his right arm. The piece of the armour covering the large man's left shoulder shattered into pieces and blood erupted from a large slash wound.

"_RAAAARGH!_"

The large man jumped back, but it was clear that the wound had only enraged him.

Without really thinking about it, Ritsuka took a few steps out into the clearing to look closer at the battle, but he regretted it immediately.

The large man looked his way and the second his eyes locked onto Ritsuka, he let out a loud roar and started dashing towards him.

"What…!?" Fight or flight hit him immediately and, knowing that there was no way he could even begin to challenge this man, he turned and fled back into the forest. Then he heard a voice yell out from behind him, towards the man.

"Saber! Don't let him hurt that boy!"

"Of course."

Ritsuka didn't know what to make of the conversation, but what he did know is that he heard the loud footsteps of the man running catching up to him at an incredible pace. Fearing the worst, he dared to glance behind him. For some reason, his life didn't flash before his eyes, but he was almost certain that he was going to die. What he saw was the large man, not more than three feet behind him, lifting his spear for the strike that would surely end the boy's life.

"Not so fast!"

So fast, Ritsuka had to blink before his mind could comprehend what had happened, a large slash wound opened across the man's chest, a weapon having cut cleanly through his armour.

"RAAARGH!" He yelled out in pain and swiped to his side.

A blur dodged the attack and the blur's next attack ended the fight as the large man's head was cut cleanly off his body in one swipe.

"RRRA..aa…a…"

The large man's body fell to the ground and was slowly engulfed in a white light.

"What…?" Ritsuka started to ask. The light slowly turned into smaller specks of light that floated into the night sky before disappearing completely.

The hooded figure stood in front of the boy, his right hand still seeming like it was grasping something. In fact, with a closer look, Ritsuka could see that the tip of a sword was outlined in blood that was dripping to the ground. A floating tip of a sword.

The figure offered a hand to the boy, which he accepted. His mind was so fried from what he had just witnessed that he was just going along with the figure without even thinking.

"Ah, you finally finished him off, Saber. And you even managed to save the boy. Good job. I'd expect no less from you."

"Of course, Master."

A girl walked out of the darkness to stand next to the hooded figure. She was another beauty, long brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a short red dress with dark leggings and… casual tennis shoes? The shoes made the boy questions her choice in attire, but he didn't say anything.

And so a brief silence ensued as the boy didn't know what to say and the girl simply looked him up and down as if trying to figure something out.

"Um…" Ritsuka started before being interrupted by the girl.

"You're… not a Master, hm? Strange, I feel a pretty good amount of magical energy in you. Well, pretty average for a mage, but a lot more than the average human. Your circuits feel pretty average as well."

"Master? Magical energy? I think you have the wrong person."

"There's no way. You feel it too, right Saber?"

The figure nodded.

"Oi." She nudged him in the side. "Take off that hood, it's rude, you know."

"Eh? Master, you were the one who told me…"

"While we're in battle!"

"Very well, then."

He pulled back his hood to reveal bright blonde hair, definitely belong to a foreigner, and emerald green eyes.

Ritsuka never would have guessed he was a foreigner with his perfect Japanese pronunciation.

"Nice to meet you, um…"

"Ah." He had been so shocked by the events, he didn't even think about introducing himself. "Fujimaru Ritsuka." He offered a smile which the blonde boy returned.

Instead of reaching out to shake his hand or anything, he gave a deep bow, one the boy would never expect to see even here in Japan. It had an aura of… royalty to it, he felt.

"I am the Servant of this girl. My class is Saber and you can feel free to address me as such."

"Saber, huh… Wait, class? Servant?"

"And I'm this guy's Master, Aozaki Aoko. Nice to meetcha." She threw in a wink and weird motion with her hand that almost looked like she was trying to salute him but forgot how to salute. "But anyways, as a mage you should have sensed our magical energy and known it was too dangerous to come over. What mage who isn't involved tries to interfere in a Holy Grail War? Or well, if this can be called that anymore."

She considered something for a second, but instead shook her head and held out her hand. Ritsuka definitely felt a much more casual aura from this girl as opposed to the boy.

"I uh, thanks for saving me, but I really have no idea what you're talking about."

The Master and Servant looked at each other for a second before returning their confused gazes to him. Well, the girl seemed confused. Saber seemed as if this was what he was already expecting.

"Eh?" They both announced their confusion in unison.

"No way… You don't come from a family of mages, Ritsuka?"

The use of his given name threw him off a bit, but he recovered quickly.

"I don't. At least, as far as I know. I've never heard or seen my parents casting spells or anything."

"Pff. Haha, you're a funny one, Ritsuka." Aoko was genuinely laughing and had to calm herself down, wiping away tears. "I think you have some pretty stereotypical misconception about mages, though."

"Master, if I may." Saber interrupted. "You can do whatever you want, of course, but if I'm correct, mages aren't supposed to allow their existence to be known."

"Oh, come on, Saber. He already saw you take out Berserker. What does it matter?"

Saber sighed and shook his head.

"Do as you wish, Master."

"Good, good. Now that that's settled, let's go get some food, shall we?" She asked, a wide smile brimming on her face.

"Food?"

"Yeah, watching all that fighting made me hungry. Come on, I'll tr-…" Aoko paused and turned around, reaching into her pocket. Ritsuka didn't have to be a psychic to know she was checking her wallet. After a moment, she thrust whatever it was back into her pocket and turned back to the boy. "I-I'll treat you!" she said somewhat shakily.

Ritsuka smiled at that and shook his head.

"I'll pay for all of us as thanks for saving me." Though he hadn't noticed, he had calmed down quickly while talking to the girl. He couldn't point out what it was but being around her was relaxing. He thought about that but didn't mention it to her. "Let's go."

As they walked, instead of talking about this "Holy Grail War" and Servants and Masters, they talked casually about life.

"I live with my mother and little sister." Ritsuka told her. "My father is always away on business trips, but I guess that's why we're able to live so freely."

"Ahhh, living a normal life like that sounds like a lot of fun. I live alone for now. I was part of the Aozaki family, but when I refused to become the successor, I was cast aside. And, so, here I am in Fuyuki."

"It must be hard balancing school and living alone. Not to mention…" He glanced at Saber, who had his hood up and cloak pulled around him to hide his armour. "This whole Holy Grail War stuff."

Aoko let out a light laugh, but didn't comment any further on that, instead changing the subject.

"So, what is your little sister like? I always thought that I would like to live a normal life with a mother, father, and little sister."

Ritsuka took a second to think about that. He loved his sister, of course, but lately it had just been him teasing her like he always had but she would get angry at him.

"It's fun to have one, I guess. I enjoy being with her and watching her grow up slowly. But lately she just gets annoyed when I mess with her. She used to think it was funny. Maybe she's just entering her rebellious phase? I think she's a bit too young for that, though."

"Pff, calm down, you siscon."

"Si-!?"

"Kidding, kidding."

They kept the conversation casual until they reached a family restaurant that was open late.

"A table for two, please." Aoko said.

"Eh? But…" Ritsuka turned to look for Saber, but he was nowhere to be found.

They were seated and put in their orders before they began speaking again.

"Where did Saber go? I was sure he was behind us just a minute before getting here." He was still glancing around as if expecting the boy to pop up out of nowhere.

"Hm? Oh, he's here. He's just not visible right now. It's kind of hard to have a Servant always with you, so this kind of ability is necessary."

"I see…"

There were a lot of things Ritsuka wanted to ask her about, but he didn't know where to begin. From what he had heard it sounded like everything tied back to this "Holy Grail War" that she had mentioned earlier.

Just as he was about to speak up, he felt that tugging feeling. It was towards Aoko. And he heard the voice again, this time a faint whisper in the back of his head.

_Your wish…_

"Aozaki-san..."

"Aoko-chan is fine."

"Aoko-san…"

"You're really no fun."

"Aoko…?"

"Better!"

"Aoko… Um… This whole thing, this Holy Grail War… Could it be that you have a wish you want granted?"

Even to him it seemed a ridiculous question that came out of absolutely nowhere. However, it seemed like the right question to him. He still believed that this voice he was hearing today was due to a lack of sleep, but it had got him thinking. Did he have a wish? His answer would always be "no." But…

"Haha, I knew you were just pretending. If you already knew what the Holy Grail War is then there's no reason to pretend you don't! Unless, of course, you just wanted to come to a family restaurant with a pretty girl like me, so you lied. It's understandable, I'm sure no man would judge you harshly for it."

She was nodding in triumph as if this had been the big reveal in a drama series and she had been telling her friends that this was the way it would end the whole time.

"You're undeniably pretty, Aoko, but even I wouldn't stoop that low just to go out with a girl." He smiled at that, a bit of the tension that had built up when he asked that question leaving him. "But I wasn't lying when I said I have no idea what this is all about. I'm not a mage and I've never heard of the Holy Grail War or Masters and Servants."

Aoko puffed her chest out at the compliment, but relaxed again and faked clearing her throat before starting.

"Well, first I 'll start with the simple. Magic and mages exist. It might not be what you would expect in fantasy, but there are definitely mages that can throw around fireballs and whatnot. That's not very commonplace though. Mages use magical energy or mana to cast their spells. Mana exists all around us in the air as well as in every living thing. Mages are really just people who have a high affinity for using this magical energy."

"Then what you said earlier?" About my magical circuits?"

"Ah, yeah. I have a pretty good affinity for feeling out a person's magical energy and circuits. At least, a much higher affinity than most mages. You have quite a bit of magical energy in you, more than the average person, so I assumed you were a mage. You also have pretty good circuits as well. Ah, circuits are well, literally circuits of magical energy that flow through your body. They allow mages to direct their mana flow."

"I see… so, does that mean since every person has magical circuits, anybody can become a mage?"

"In a sense, sure. Maybe with enough practice, anybody could be. But, with the amount of mana an average person has, they would remain an average or below-average mage for their whole life. You really need a certain affinity for controlling mana flow. Typically mages nowadays all come from distinguished families, known for their line of mages. That being said, I think you possess the affinity for becoming a mage."

"Eh? Really?"

"Usually people with a high amount of mana inherently have the ability to control it, even if you haven't tried before. Though, most mages are trained from a young age, so you would have a really late start on them. I think you could stand on equal footing with above-average mages of this era."

This was a lot of information to take in all at once and Ritsuka had to process all of it. Luckily for him, their food arrived right after she finished speaking, so they decided to take a quick break to eat. While he had ordered a burger since it was the middle of the night now, Aoko had gotten a six stack of pancakes and from the glint in her eyes, he had little doubt that she would need help finishing them.

In fact, that was proven to him only seconds later as she began to devour the pancakes. He was almost worried that with that kind of speed she would accidentally bite down on the fork.

The two of them finished eating around the same time, which he found impressive considering she had just stuffed six pancakes down her throat in record time. Ritsuka was still eating a few fries, but it was still easy to speak that way.

"Saber doesn't need to eat?"

"Saber is my Servant and so, manifests with my magical energy. That's all he needs to remain here. That being said, we do eat together at home."

"Oh, right. You still haven't explained that yet."

Aoko cleared her throat and the boy knew was also going to be a lengthy explanation.

"I'll keep this as short as I can while still explaining everything. The Holy Grail was created a long time ago by mages. It's a semi-omnipotent device that can grant almost any wish a person can think of. Once the Holy Grail was created, however, it was determined that no single person should be able to make an unlimited amount of wishes with it. And so, the Holy Grail War was made. This is a war that uses the Holy Grail to summon 7 Servants, heroes of the past, that aid their Master. In exchange, both the Servant and the Master get their wish granted."

She paused to take a sip of her water.

"Only the winner of the Holy Grail War gets their wish granted. Ah, I guess I skipped a part. These Servants are split into 7 different classes to represent their way of fighting. The classes are: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Assassin, Caster, Rider, and Berserker. There are records of other classes being summoned, but since I haven't seen it for myself, I've always assumed it was just fake. Either way, let's move on. Masters fight until there is only one servant left. When that happens, the Holy Grail War is over and the winning Master and Servant claim the grail and they both get their wish. Haa… that was a lot more talking than I thought it would be."

Ritsuka laughed and shook his head.

"I appreciate the time. And once again, thank you for saving me."

"Well, it's not like I would just let somebody die, especially when it's something they're not involved in."

They settled on that being a good enough explanation, so Ritsuka paid the bill and they walked out.

"Well then, Aoko, it's a long while after I meant to be home, so I should really get going now. Thanks again for everything."

"Nonsense, you treated me to a meal which, in some ways, is just like saving a life." She gave a thumbs up.

"See you, then." He turned away and began to walk the way back to his home. They had taken a decent detour to eat, so he had made some extra work for himself, but after all that had happened, he didn't really mind that.

"Wait! That's not right!" Ritsuka turned around only to see Aoko running right up to him. She stopped only a couple inches from him, a slightly annoyed look to her face as she looked him up and down, just like when they had first met. "Aren't you forgetting something here?"

"Eh? Did you want me to walk you home?"

"Ahaha!" Her annoyed look was immediately replaced with a smile as she burst into laughter from that. "Thank you, but I have Saber, I think I'll be fine." She shook her head and tried her best to put on a serious look. "After you go on a date with a girl, aren't you supposed to get her number to set up the next one?"

"I'm not exactly sure I would classify that as a date."

"Just think about the part where we ate together!"

"Even that…"

Ritsuka didn't know what she was planning, but she simply took out her phone and waited. He sighed, but thought it would probably be a good thing to be able to get in contact with her again, so he took his out as well and they exchanged contact information.

"Good, good." She said, nodding her approval as she looked at her phone. "Well then, with that I'll see you later, Ritsuka. Be careful. You may not be involved, but there is a Holy Grail War going on in this city right now. So, don't get caught up in it again." She winked and turned away.

"Farewell, Ritsuka-dono." A disembodied voice that he recognized as Saber's spoke out.

"What a day…" he mumbled to himself.

Recounting all of the events that had transpired was making his head hurt so he figured he would leave that for tomorrow. Now that everything had died down, he realized how tired he was and let out a long yawn. With the detour of the family restaurant, he figured it would be a good 20 minutes or so before he reached his house.

It was almost 22:00. They had spent more time together than he had thought. Though, he had also gone shopping with Ryuuko which in a way had cause him to be in the park that night.

Once again, he could only stare at the sky in wonder as he recalled the events of today. He looked back down at his phone as walked.

"Ah…"

He didn't notice when he took it out to give Aoko his information, but he had six missed calls from his mother. The only hope he had was that she hadn't called the police yet. Instead of calling back, he spent the rest of the walk home mentally preparing himself for the scolding.

And he definitely received that.

Once he was home, he was forced to get on his knees in the living room while his mother lectured him for over 20 minutes.

"I hope you've learned your lesson. Really now…" Irisviel, his mother, turned away. "Now go take a bath and get ready for bed. Worrying has made me tired too."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Like I tried to say, a big part of it was completely outside of my control."

Irisviel shook her head.

"Are you sure you weren't just meeting with a girl?"

"No, I-!" Ritsuka stopped, thinking about what had happened. He hadn't intentionally gone out of his way to meet with a girl, but that was what had happened in a very simplistic sense. "Not really?"

"Not really!?" He realized his screwup too late. His mother had just been making a joke, but he had taken it seriously just because of the fact that he had been with a girl. "Ritsuka!"

A sound drew both of their eyes to the living room door where Rin's head was poking in.

"Onii-chan was meeting his girlfriend in the middle of the night? Suspicious~"

"Not you too, Rin!"

"Ritsuka, you'll have to tell me more about this tomorrow!"

"And me too, Onii-chan!"

"I-I see…"

And with that another day ended in Fujimaru Ritsuka's uneventful(?) life.

* * *

**Firstly, thanks a bunch for reading this chapter. I had a lot of fun writing this. I thought I would return to writing fanfics after taking a sort of break.**

**So, if it wasn't obvious already 9/10 things will be changed in this story as opposed to the normal Fate world. This is the same for characters as well as just fundamental workings of the universe itself. I know this is obvious for some of you, but there will be people messaging me about "How could you get this simple bit of lore wrong?" The answer is: I won't get any lore "wrong." All lore in this story will be original. If it happens to fit in with the actual Fate universe, that's great but it won't be my intention.**

**I've been saying Fate universe, but I should be saying nasuverse since I'm obviously including non-fate characters. That's always fun, isn't it?**

**Lastly, I feel like this chapter might give off the wrong impression with all of the girls. My intention isn't to make this a harem story, it just happened that the characters I wanted to introduce first were girls and they happen to be, uh, quirky in this AU.**

**Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed. Feel free to leave any feedback, thoughts, w/e. Also, honestly, I never fully spell/grammar check my chapters, just a bits and pieces. So, if you notice any misspellings or other grammatical errors, I'm sorry. I'll try not to be lazy in the future.**


	3. Holy Grail War II

**So, well, here's chapter 2. Not much to say in a preface.**

**Oh, there is one thing. I don't remember if I said it, but this story is meant to be a casual read in some ways. For example, when I was in high school my English teachers used to tell us to never use contractions in writing, but I often use them in this story. I think it makes it a bit easier to read and I'd like it to sound more like somebody is telling you a story rather than you having to read a serious story.**

**That's all I really wanted to say. Enjoy.**

* * *

"Ah… Eh?" Ritsuka felt his chest sweating. Something besides his shirt was pressed in close against him, causing unnecessary heat. He slowly opened his eyes, the grogginess of waking up slowly fading away.

He tried to sit up, but something was weighing down on his right arm. And he wasn't the least bit surprised to see his little sister, already dressed in her uniform, sleeping next to him. He figured that it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that she was going to wake him up but thought that she could get a few more minutes of precious sleep. And yet she was always criticizing him?

Finally wiping away the last of that sleepy feeling, he looked at his phone on the nightstand by his bed to check how late he would be today.

8:25

"Huh, that's weird… First period should already have started. Ah, well… even if I sprinted there now, I probably wouldn't get there until the middle of second period or later. I guess I'll just go back to sleep."

As soon as his head touched the pillow again, he heard loud stomping coming up the stairs. Now, he could have jumped up and pretended to be in rush to get ready, but he knew that the anger she would feel would be all the same. He wasn't usually this late after all.

And just as he thought, his door slammed open and his mother walked in.

"Ritsuka! Rin!" She shouted. "What do the two of you think you're doing? Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Eh…?" Rin snapped away at the sound and started to rub her eyes, but Ritsuka rolled onto his side and wrapped his arms around his little sister, holding her in front of him, towards their mother.

"Don't worry, Rin. Onii-chan will protect you."

"Rather than that, aren't you just using me as a shield, Onii-chan?"

"I've been found out. Well, that doesn't mean it won't still work."

They both glanced up at their mother who hadn't spoken during that exchange which greatly worried the both of them. And sure enough, she was seething with anger.

"Get! Up! Already!"

Suffice to say, her yelling had helped the boy prepare in record time and he was running out the door before he knew it. Irisviel decided to take Rin to school and try to make up some excuse so they wouldn't mark her as absent.

Meanwhile Ritsuka found himself once again sprinting his way to school. Though he didn't know why he bothered since he was already so late. By the time he got there, he would be surprised if they even let him in at all. All he knew was that he was going to get a good talking to in the staff room before going to class.

Then he felt it. That tugging feeling, stronger than before. It was felt so strong, it was almost as if somebody had actually grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked. He was thrown off balance and feel backward, turning his back to the ground so he wouldn't land on his face. But that was the least of his problems. A flash of black crossed his vision just as he turned and he felt a searing pain on his chest.

He hit the ground and rolled over, trying to get away from whatever that was. When he came to a stop, he got onto his knees, but stopped when he saw the trail of blood leading to him. Slowly his eyes drifted downward to the massive cut across his chest. His uniform was in tatters in the front and a cut that was easily a foot long or more came from just above his waist to a few inches below his neck.

Surprisingly, the searing pain had faded and it was only stinging, but he already chalked that up to adrenaline.

Ritsuka stood, looking around for his attacker and realized what had happened immediately. He had been running by an alley when somebody had struck out at him. If it was for that feeling from before, he would likely be dead already.

And sure enough, a man was walking out of that alley. This man was yet another strange face to the boy: blonde hair, muscular, carrying something that resembled a twisted black sword in one hand and some other strange sword the boy couldn't identify in his other hand, a chain connecting the two weapons. The man wore jeans and an open shirt, revealing a myriad of scars all along his chest and even one on his face that resembled claw marks.

Just like the previous night, Ritsuka didn't get the feeling of "human" from this man at all.

"You're… a Servant?"

"Haha, I'm surprised you managed to dodge that one, kid. Honestly, I wasn't in favour of a surprise attack, but my Master insisted on it. Things will be better this way anyways."

He had a rough voice that perfectly fit his look.

"Master? Looks like I was right..."

"That's right. I'm a servant. My class is Berserker. Although I'd say it's nice to meet you, I'm sure you would think the opposite. Sorry about this, but my Master wants me to kill you. Even though it seems you're not a Master, apparently you're already involved in this war, huh? Sorry kid, but we have something of an obligation to kill anybody who witnesses the war."

Ritsuka would have liked to sprint away at the point, but he knew it was useless. This guy was Servant and he had already witnessed firsthand their superhuman speed and strength. He would definitely be killed before he could get away.

The large man raised that twisted black sword.

"Sorry about this. Don't hold a grudge against me or anything. Hm?"

Instead of using the sword to end Ritsuka's life, he swung it out to the side, block a projectile that would have taken his head off. When the projectile hit, it split into a red liquid that rained down around them. When it touched the ground, it quickly faded into nothing.

"Look at that. It's only been a month since we've had the chance to hang out and look at what you've gotten yourself into, Ritsuka."

He recognized the voice immediately and looked back the way he had come. Sure enough, a boy with dark hair and grey blue eyes approaching him. He wore the uniform of a different school.

"Eh? Shinji? What are you-?"

"We'll save that for later. Assassin. Take care of Berserker.

"Hmph."

The response sounded so close to Ritsuka, and a girl stepped seemingly out of nowhere. She didn't look much older than them, but was dressed… odd, to say the least. She wore a dark sweater-dress with another dark revealing dress over it that came down into a red flare. Her brown hair was pulled into a long ponytail that fell almost to her feet. Though most of that wasn't necessarily out of the ordinary, though in public it was, the thing that caught his attention the most was her red eyes. A pair of glasses sat over them, but he could see the deep red even from where he was.

From seemingly nowhere, she pulled out two swords, one in each hand and gracefully jumped into the air. With one swing, that red liquid that the boy could only say resembled blood, appeared from the blades and shot down in front of him, all around his attacker.

Berserker jumped up and back to the top of one of the buildings that made up the alley.

"Now this is more like it. Killing innocent people really isn't my thing. It's about time I get some action with another Servant."

Assassin landed on the building opposite of him and just shook her head.

"While I can see why you might be enthusiastic about this fight, please restrain yourself, savage. I'll do my utmost to give you a quick death in hopes that you don't bleed on my dress."

He jumped into the air and brought his swords up and he flew to the girl.

Right after Assassin and Berserker left, Shinji ran over to the boy and grabbed him to support him.

"Are you okay, Ritsuka? That's a pretty nasty looking wound."

Ritsuka smiled, feeling comforted by the presence of his friend. He had been friends with Shinji for over 9 years and he was definitely closer with him than any other friend.

"Thanks, Shinji. I'm okay… or I'd like to say that but honestly now that my heart is calming down, the pain is so bad I'm surprised that I haven't burst into tears yet." He looked down. Blood was still flowing from the wound and he knew that he would need to get it treated soon to avoid any serious repercussions.

"Don't worry. I'll get you somewhere where you can be treated quickly." He reached into his pocket and took out a slip of paper with strange symbols all over it. Mumbling so quietly that Ritsuka couldn't hear him even though he was so close, he spoke words directly to the paper before the symbols started to glow. He threw it to the ground and a circle appeared around it. "Come on. This will get us where we need to go."

Shinji stepped into the circle, bringing Ritsuka with him. A flash of light caused Ritsuka to close his eyes briefly and when he opened them again, a set of double doors was in front of him.

"Eh?" He looked up and they were next to a massive white building. A red cross near the top made him realize they were behind a hospital. "Shinji, you…"

"I'll answer your questions later. For now, let's get you treated."

Shinji shoved the doors open, moving as quickly as he could through the hallway. A nurse was nearby when they entered her eyes lit up immediately.

"Shinji-kun!? What are-?" She noticed Ritsuka's condition and immediately called out. "Doctor! Doctor! Code 03!"

She ran into one of the rooms near her and came out with a stretcher. Stopping in front of the boys, she and Shinji helped the boy onto the stretcher. Blood was still flowing freely from the massive wound and Ritsuka could feel it becoming harder to keep his eyes open.

"Shinji… I…"

"Ritsuka! Hang in there! Ritsuka!"

And slowly, his world faded to black.

"Hmph. Who would have guessed that you would last this long, lowly savage?" Assassin asked, dropping back down onto a stack of crates in front of a warehouse.

She had purposely kept the fight as calm as possible while leading the man to an area full of warehouses where she figured few people would be.

Beowulf was covered in injuries, but they didn't seem to have affected him much, if at all.

"Ha. You seem to underestimate me, Assassin."

"Underestimate? Not at all. I still think of you as no more than a lowly savage, Berserker. Am I wrong? You fight with a bit of skill, but you're just throwing yourself at me, hoping to get a hit in. And surely, I'd be in trouble if one of those swords touched me, but I don't think I have much to worry about there."

She let a brief smirk show as she finished that.

"You're right, I guess." Berserker held both of his swords in front of them. "I guess I'll really have to go all out then." Both of them disappeared in brief flashes of light.

"Oho? I don't think you've given up the will to fight and yet you're throwing away your weapons? Or…"

She stopped herself. She could feel the murderous aura flowing from the man. His muscles tightened and the ground underneath him cracked.

"Ra… AHAHAHA!" Before she could react, the man appeared in front of her, his speed faster than even her eyesight as a servant couldn't perceive. "GRENDEL BUSTER!"

All Assassin had time to do was bring up her swords in defense. Berserker's fist struck one of the swords and cracked it on that first hit. The next hit was to her actual arm which sent her flying back through a wall of one of the warehouses.

"How do you like that, Assassin!? This is my power!"

Just as he was about to jump into the building and continue the fight, the roof of the warehouse was blown off, those red blood-like projectiles shooting into the air in the hundreds.

He peered into the warehouse and saw the girl standing, blood dripping from her mouth, her dress torn in several places. Miraculously, her glasses were fine.

"I see. I take it back. Maybe I did underestimate you. For that, I'm sorry. But for that exact reason…" She raised her arms in a dramatic fashion, pointing the swords in her hand toward the sky.

Berserker looked up. The sky above them had turned red and the blood she had sent up had coalesced into a giant floating ball.

"My eternal lamentations, abandoned even by fated destruction."

"If I kill you first, there's no way!" Berserker jumped from the rooftop, crushing the warehouse under him as he came down upon the girl.

"O sky! O clouds! May you curse these lives with tears of pity!"

Just as he reached her, a projectile of blood from the sky slammed into and through his stomach.

"Gah…!"

And then hundreds of those projectiles rained down around them.

Berserker hit the ground in front of the girl and struggled to stand through the projectiles that constantly tore his body apart. His blood sprayed everywhere.

By the time the blood stopped raining from the sky and the sky returned to its normal colour, most of Berserker's body was blown to bits, except for his head and the top of his chest, which was so torn up, it was amazing that it hadn't fallen apart.

"You were an interesting opponent, Beowulf. But unfortunately for you, your fighting style could never hope to win against me."

"Haha… I'm glad to be… addressed by my name in these finals moments." Somehow the man was still alive, just barely and he spoke with great pain.

"Of course. Anybody who heard the name of your Noble Phantasm would recognize you anywhere. Now, close your eyes and return to the Throne of Heroes. Rest and be ready for your next war. Do your best to win for your next Master."

"Ha… I don't know if you're trying to sound nice or what… But I suppose it is time for me to get going…"

His body was slowly covered in light before breaking apart into specks of light that rose into the sky, slowly fading away.

"Unfortunately for your Master, a Holy Grail War is only in part strategy. A large part of the war is simply getting lucky with the servant you get. You were strong Beowulf, but not strong enough. Perhaps if your Master had summoned someone stronger they would have defeated me."

She turned her back to where he had been and walked away.

"Ugh…" Ritsuka felt a sharp pain go through his chest and that helped him wake up. A bright light assaulted his eyes and he had to let them adjust before fully opening them. "Where…?"

He turned his head to the right and saw a window looking out at the evening sky. Then he remembered what happened and he shot up. But he regretted that immediately. The pain that shot through his chest made him flinch and he almost felt like he was going to lose consciousness again for a second.

"I wouldn't recommend getting up so quickly." A voice reached his ears and he turned to see a man with fluffy light hair walking in. He was pretty young looking for a doctor, mot likely only recently graduated from medical school.

"I…"

"It's alright. You've been unconscious for about 10 hours. You lost a lot of blood back there. We patched up your wound, but I'm sorry to say it's left quite the scar.

Ritsuka looked down and saw he was wearing a hospital gown which expected by that point. He opened the top of it to look at his chest and, sure enough, there was a massive scar going across his chest, exactly where Berserker had struck him.

He looked back at the doctor.

"Um, Sensei-"

"Ah, that's right. The name's Romani Archaman. Roman is fine."

"Roman-sensei, um… where's Shinji?"

"Oh, Matou-kun said he was making an excuse to your family for you."

Ritsuka sighed in relief at that. Even though explaining all of this to his family was the last thing on his mind, he was glad that was taken care of. The last thing he needed was his mother worrying while hew as gone for who knows how long.

"So, Fujimaru-kun." Romani spoke up again. "Although I would like to recommend you staying overnight, you're free to leave whenever you want. Ah, and don't worry about money or anything. This hospital is run by the Matou family. When Matou-kun told his father that it was you, he said to waive all costs. If you do want to leave, all of your stuff is on that chair." He nodded to one corner of the room where his uniform was folded. A white shirt and a pair of shorts were on top of that as well, with his phone and wallet on top of those. Shinji must have left him a spare outfit, he figured.

"I guess I'll be needing a new uniform anyway." Ritsuka laughed lightly. He slowly managed to get out of the bed and moved over to the clothes but stopped. "Roman-sensei… um… Just out of curiosity, this scar…" He hadn't thought about it a minute ago, but he noticed that there weren't any bandages on his chest, just the scar itself.

"Hm? Is something strange about it? I can take a look if you want."

"No, that's not what I mean. It doesn't look like you put any stitches in. It looks more like it just healed over time. But something like that wouldn't heal on its own in 10 hours, right?"

Romani looked like her was considering something, but he was really struggling whether or not to bring it up.

"Is it possible you used magecraft to heal this?"

The man looked surprised at that remark.

"You know about magecraft, fujimaru-kun? Ah, that's makes things a lot easier. Matou-kun didn't really explain what had happened to you, so I assumed it had something to do with magic, but I wasn't going to make any presumptions. Yes, we used magecraft to heal your body. We tried our best to get rid of the scar, but we couldn't, most likely because it was inflicted by something that used some serious magecraft of its own. Am I wrong?"

Ritsuka thought about that. The Holy Grail War was a war of magecraft. It used some form of magecraft to summon servants, so the doctor wasn't completely wrong.

"Yeah, I guess so. A Servant did it."

"Eh? A Servant? No way, no way. You're telling me you survived an attack from a Servant?"

He considered telling him about how Shinji saved him with his Servant, but for some reason, he felt like that was a bad idea.

"Yeah. Another Master came and began to fight the Servant. "Shinji found me after that."

"I'm surprised. I didn't take you for a Mage, but you know about magecraft, the Holy Grail War, and you even know that it's going on in this city right now."

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to talk about it. Then again, if Romani was talking about it so casually, he figured it must be okay to know about it. From the fact that he's never heard any of this magecraft stuff mentioned before, he assumed it was a secret form the rest of society.

Ritsuka figured he could just pass of as Mage to this man, but for some reason he felt like he shouldn't lie to him.

"I'm not a Mage, actually. And I don't really know much about magecraft at all. I only just recently learned about magecraft and the Holy Grail War. To be honest, I'm still not too sure about all of this."

"Eh? So you're just a normal guy? I'd say you're not supposed to know about this stuff, but I guess it doesn't matter at this point. As long as you don't go around talking about it, I don't think anybody will care. But, well… don't go around talking about it. There are some higher ups in this world that would like to eliminate people who spread information about magecraft."

A chill ran down the boy's spine, but he shook it off. If all he had to do to avoid that was not go around talking about it, his life should be fine.

Then a thought came to his mind and he sighed.

"Man, if Shinji didn't come up with the best excuse in the world, I'm dead."

An hour later and Ritsuka was waiting in front of the hospital for Irisviel to pick him up. She had been busy for a bit, but when he had talked on the phone, she was practically crying, so he was relieved that she wasn't angry with him. He still didn't know what excuse Shinji gave to her, but it sounded like it worked.

He used this time to think over the events of the last days. So much stuff had happened in such a short period of time, he didn't know how to handle it all. Romani had given him his number and told him that if he got any more injuries involving magecraft, he could come back, and they would treat it free of charge. That was nice at least, but he hoped he could avoid that.

A question had been floating around in his head that he had meant to ask Romani but forgot. According to what Aoko had told him, in a Holy Grail War, one servant from each of the seven classes is summoned. But both the Servant that attacked him when Saber saved him and the one that attack him earlier today were both Berserkers.

That gave him a bad feeling about this whole thing. He vaguely remembered her referring to the war "if it can be called that anymore" or something. Maybe something strange was going on with this war. Then again for him this was all strange.

Just then, a slick black car stopped in front of him. The driver door opened and Irisviel hopped out. Before he had the chance to greet her, she ran up to him and embraced him.

"Ritsuka! I'm so glad you're okay1 I was so worried!" She squeezed him tightly.

Although he thought to pull away, he hugged her back instead.

"I'm sorry."

After a minute of hugging, Irisviel calmed down and separated herself from him.

"Now, let's go home. I didn't tell Rin what happened, but she was still worried nonetheless."

He nodded. They got in the car and he made sure to buckle himself him and nervously held onto the door. His mother was great at many things, but well, driving wasn't one of them.

Irisviel immediately slammed the gas pedal and tore out of there. He thought for sure they were going to wreck into something. She was going 140km/h on a 100km/h highway, weaving through cars with practiced skill. And with one look at her Ritsuka could tell she was having a blast, but her passengers never thought the same. All he could think about was that he was glad she wasn't angry at him so that if he died in the next few minutes on this ride, he would die with them having a good relationship.

Even though she was going so fast, it felt like an excruciatingly long time until they pulled into their driveway.

As soon as Ritsuka opened the door, his little sister jumped at him, wrapping her arms around him.

"Onii-chan!" I thought you were dying!"

Is this what Irisviel meant when she said worried? He didn't know what Shinji had told them, but even so she had said that she didn't tell Rin what was going on, so this seemed like a bit of an overreaction. Though, if she knew what really happened, he would think this was a justified reaction.

He put a hand on her head and smiled.

"It's okay, Rin. It wasn't anything serious."

"Really?"

"Really."

She finally let go.

Ritsuka pat her head one more time before walking past her.

"I'm sorry, Mom, but it looks like I'll need another uniform too. This one is… a little torn up."

"Nonsense!" She grabbed the torn uniform from his hands, her eyes sparkling. "Leave it to me! You'll never even know it happened!"

He let out a laugh at that. Now that he was back home, he felt better about the whole situation. Being around these two was good for his health he thought but didn't say.

After a bit more of making excuse to his little sister about why he couldn't explain what had happened to her, he went to bathroom where Irisviel had already ran the water for his bath. He stripped, washed himself off, and climbed in.

"Ah… ow, ow." The scar stung when the hot water touched it, but the great feeling the rest of his body was experiencing from a warm bath helped him to ignore it. "Servants, magecraft, the Holy Grail War… just what's going on?"

He heard the door to the bathroom open and figured Irisviel was collecting his borrowed clothes so that she could wash them before he returned them. But he was wrong. The door slid open and Rin was standing there, stripped of her clothes, hands on hips.

"Can I come in, Onii-chan?"

Ritsuka just shook his head.

"You're already in here, so why not? Make sure to wash yourself before getting in."

"Yay!" Rin sat on the small stool they had and quickly washed herself off before hopping into the bathtub with the boy. She took her spot, leaning her back against his chest.

Somehow, she hadn't noticed the scar, or she had chosen not to point it out. Either way, Ritsuka was grateful.

Rin was just sitting there quietly for a few minutes which prompted him to start the conversation.

"Are you okay, Rin? You're really quiet."

She absentmindedly splashed at the water for a bit before answering.

"That's what I want to ask you, Onii-chan."

"Eh?"

"You've been acting a little weird the past couple days. And you look like you're looking down more."

Had he really been doing that? It's not like he was upset about anything. Maybe it's just because he had been thinking about all this Holy Grail War stuff and that voice that he had been hearing before.

He smiled and put a hand on her head. Even if he didn't like making her worry, he was glad to know that she was looking out for him. He made a mental note to keep these contemplating sessions in private from now on. Worrying his family is the last thing he wants to do.

"I'm fine, Rin. Thank you for worrying about me. Older people just have some things they worry about, you know? I have exams coming up and whatnot, so I've been studying a lot as well. Things just pile up. Knowing my cute little sister is worrying about me makes me feel better anyways."

Rin's cheeks gained a red tint to them and she splashed the water in front of her.

"It's not like I'm really worried or anything…"

Ritsuka laughed and pat her again.

"Right, right."

After a few more minutes of Ritsuka casually asking about her school and friends, they got out and dried off. It was pretty late by then, so he decided to just turn in. After all that had happened, he was realized how exhausted he truly was, both physically and mentally.

But he stopped as he was turning the doorknob to his room and turned to look behind him. Rin was standing there as if nothing was amiss.

"Um… Rin. Your room is over there, you know." He said, pointing down the hallway.

"Well, you know… I was thinking I could… sleep with Onii-chan tonight." She mumbled the last part as if he wasn't really meant to hear it, but he still did.

"Aren't you getting to the age where you should always be sleeping in your own bed? I mean, I don't mind but I thought, if anything, you would think it would be embarrassing."

She shook her head.

"After all, if I don't sleep with Onii-chan, you might sneak out of the house at night and get yourself hurt again."

He was about to argue that point, but he sighed and just accepted it. She was still worried after all and he would just come off as mean if he were to deny her request.

"Fine, fine, let's go."

A couple minutes later and he was lying awake in bed, Rin to his right side, spread out as far as she could in her sleep, one leg over him and one arm above his head. This made him remember that this was one of the reasons why he had tried to encourage her to sleep in her own bed more.

_Beep. Beep._

His phone buzzed and he reached over Rin to grab it off of his nightstand, silencing it before it could wake her up.

A text on the front screen read: _Are you busy, Ritsuka?_

It was from Aoko. This was the first time she had reached out to him since they had met. A sinking feeling developed in his stomach and he slowly replied that he wasn't.

_That's good. Do you think you could come help me stand up?_

Help her stand up? A thousand questions rushed through his head, but that feeling in his stomach told him that she wasn't just messing with him and he didn't have the time to doubt her.

He slowly got out of the bed, making sure that he didn't wake his sister up and threw on his school pants and jacket since they were already out. He crept his way downstairs just in case Irisviel was still awake. The lights were off, so he assumed she was already in bed. After rushing to put tennis shoes on, he rushed out the door.

_Where are you right now?_

_Near Ashigaoka Station. By the Asahi Café._

That was a decent bit away from him so he told her to hang in there and he would there as quickly as possible.

The night air felt good blowing on him as he began to work up a sweat sprinting down the road. He didn't know where this terrible feeling of dread was coming from, but somewhere deep inside he knew that if he took even a small break he might not make it on time. She hadn't given him a reason to believe her life was in danger and, really, he thought why should he care? This was somebody he had just met. No.

"Pfft."

Despite himself, he laughed into the night air. Whether this had been Irisviel, his own mother, or Shinji, his best friend, or Aoko, somebody he had just met, he would have rushed to their side regardless. The thought of leaving somebody alone who's in trouble would never sit well with him. If he could do something, anything, to help somebody, then he would. That was the kind of person Fujimaru Ritsuka had always been.

Sometimes, caution should be thrown to the wind. That was something he had lived by his whole life. The idea of sacrificing himself for somebody else wasn't exactly appealing, but he knew as well as anybody who knew him did that he would be the first person to jump into a burning building on the verge of collapsing if someone was still inside. Whether that was a good trait of his or not was debated between his friends, but to him it was something necessary in life.

It took him a good while, but with a few shortcuts that he knew he was standing in front of Ashigaoka Station a bit later. He was gasping for air, but he knew that he didn't have time to think about that.

He ran around, asking random people where the café was until one man finally pointed it out to him. He sprinted his way down the street to the café, but no one was in front of it. The lights were off and it had likely already been closed for hours, much like many of the other shops on this street.

"Aoko! Where are you!?"

The feeling of dread in his stomach was growing with every second and he was fearing the worst already.

"…ka."

A soft voice reached his ears, barely above a whisper. He looked around for the source of the sound and the sight that greeted him made him throat fall into his stomach. A trail of blood was leading into an alley on the other side of the street.

He ran over and, sure enough, Aoko was sitting in the alley, her back against one of the walls. She was wearing the same dress she had the day he had met her, but it was so torn in most places, it was hardly recognizable.

Blood covered the exposed parts of her body and she was gripping a wound on her shoulder that was bleeding. Just from seeing this, Ritsuka was surprised she hadn't lost consciousness.

Aoko slowly turned her head to look at the boy.

"Took you… long enough… Ritsuka…" She clearly struggled with every word and erupted into a coughing fit after she finished, spewing blood onto the opposite alley wall.

"Aoko!" Ritsuka ran up to her and got on one knee, getting one of her arms around his neck and brought her to a standing position. It was clear that there was no way she would be able to support herself, so he made sure that he was carrying most of her weight. "What happened to you?" He made sure that he was gripped the wound in her other arm with his hand, trying to staunch the bleeding as best he could.

They walked out the alley and Ritsuka half-ran, half-stumbled down the road as quickly as he could manage with the injured girl.

"Assassin… I… seemed to have picked the wrong fight… haha…" She laughed, which only made her erupt into another coughing fit. When she stopped, she took a minute to catch her breath before speaking again. "I told Saber… to keep chasing… But well… I didn't know the extent… of my injuries… For some reason… I was unable… to contact Saber…"

Assassin? That terrible feeling in his stomach only grew when he remembered where he had heard that before.

"Shinji…" Ritsuka immediately shook the thought from his head. Regardless of if the actual culprit was Shinji, he didn't have time to consider that right now. There was no way they would make it to the hospital like they were now.

They made their way uphill to a busier road. Well, it would have been busy during the day, but there was only one pair of headlights they could see.

Ritsuka waved frantically, hoping they would stop and, as luck would have it, the car slowed down and pulled over next to them.

The window lowered and a woman's voice called.

"Are you two alright?"

Ritsuak looked into the window to respond, just happy to have anybody there.

"I'm fine, but she's not. Could you take us-…"

"Eh? Fujimaru-kun?"

"T-Taiga-sensei…"

Aoko weakly looked between the two. She would have laughed if she had the energy to.

Ritsuka shook his head and opened the back door. He helped Aoko in before getting in himself.

"Fujimaru-kun, what-!?"

"No time! Can you bring us to a hospital?" He considered for a second and gave her the address of the hospital Shinji had brought him to. "Please hurry! I can't let her die like this!"

Though Taiga had an incredible amount of questions, instead of asking any of them, she just smiled.

"Leave it to me!" She threw the car into drive and slammed on the gas pedal. "I'll get us there in just a minute!"

And they sped down the down, probably almost double the speed limit.

Ritsuka was holding onto Aoko, trying to make sure that the shaking of the car wouldn't worsen her wounds.

On the way, Ritsuka called Romani, who sounded like he had just woken up and was less than enthusiastic to answer that call, and asked him to meet him there.

Taiga kept her word and they arrived at the hospital in record time. Ritsuka thanked her and promised her he would explain everything later. She tried to force herself in with him, but he begged her and she finally relented and left.

Just like Shinji had done, he had her drop them off in the back and Ritsuka forced the set of doors open. A nurse was waiting with a stretcher already. Romani was leaning against the wall yawning, but perked up when he saw the boy and girl enter.

Aoko had lost consciousness right after he pushed the doors open, so in his mind this was a critical situation now.

And so Ritsuka sat on a bench in one of the halls of the hospital, waiting to hear how everything was going. He was idly browsing the web, barely paying any attention to the articles he was passing when he heard a voice next to him.

"Ah, there you are, Ritsuka-dono."

"Eh?"

Ritsuka looked up in surprise, but saw nobody there. His brain quickly sorted out the situation though when he remembered where he had heard that voice.

"Saber?"

"Yes. I'm sorry for not showing myself, but I believe that it is better not to draw attention to myself. Anyways, how is my Master doing? I felt her presence here and so I came straight here after my battle."

"Her injuries were worse than she thought. Though she told you to continue the battle, she was seriously injured. I managed to get her here, so we'll just have to wait and see. Ah, but don't worry. At least some doctors here know about magecraft, so I'm sure they'll be able to help her with that."

"I see. You have my thanks for saving my Master, Ritsuka-dono. Even though you are not involved in this war, my Master seems to have taken an interest in you. I'm sorry that she's dragging you into our affairs."

Even though he was invisible, Ritsuka could picture him bowing when he said that last part.

"It's alright. It's my choice whether I want to be involved with her or not, right? I don't think it's right to leave someone alone in their time of need. She was in trouble so I came to help her. That's really all there is to it."

"Haha, you are truly a kind person. I fear that in this day and age there are not enough people like you. And it makes it all the worse when you're participating in a war like this which encourages a distrust in others."

Ritsuka looked at him, or well in his general direction since the boy was invisible.

"Saber, I remember Aoko saying that Servants are heroic spirits from the past. Does that mean that when you were alive, you were a hero?"

"Hmm… I don't know whether I would consider myself a hero or not, but I suppose I qualified as a hero for the sake of this war. And, perhaps, people in the modern era may see me as one."

"Then, if you don't mind my asking, who were you in life? You're called by your class name during the war, right?"

There was a pause and Ritsuka wished he could see the boy's face at that moment to know if he was annoyed by the question.

"Haha, I see we have not explained that part to you. It's not as if we are not allowed to be called by our True Names. However, if our real identities are given away during a war, the enemy can easily speculate about our abilities. So, we Servants try to keep our True Names a secret."

"I see. That makes sense."

"It's not as if I have a problem with telling you my True Name. In fact, I find it a shame that I cannot. I would like nothing more than to properly introduce myself and maybe that will happen one day. However, without the permission of my Master, which I highly doubt you will receive, I cannot tell you."

Ritsuka nodded. It made sense after all. If he was someone famous from the past, telling everybody your name would make it extremely easy for them to know what kind of abilities you might have.

"It's fine. I was just curious. Thanks for explaining though."

Just as they finished that conversation, Romani turned the corner and walked up to the boy. His eyes briefly darted away from Ritsuka before returning to him.

"Fujimaru-kun."

"How is she?" Ritsuka stood up as he spoke, but just seeing the man again lifted some of the terrible feeling in his stomach.

"She's fine, she's fine." Romani said with a calming smile. "Honestly, I'm not sure how she didn't die on the way here with the amount of blood she lost. I don't think I've ever seen a person lose that much blood and live to tell the story. We've patched her up with more that a bit of healing magic. I wasn't sure that she would make it, but we managed to close all of her major wounds. She'll probably sleep for another 10 or so hours, so I would come back tomorrow if I were you."

The boy sighed in relief. That terrible feeling finally completely flew away. Despite that he wanted to see her for himself before leaving.

"Can I see her?"

"Ah… I probably shouldn't but… as long as you don't touch her, it should be fine. Remember, even if I say she's fine, she's still recovering."

"That's fine."

Romani led him around the corner and to a room that now had the name "Shinozaki" on the room plate.

"Shinozaki?" Ritsuka asked in confusion.

"Ah, when we take in Mages, we put fake name cards in just in case some unsavory people come looking to finish the job. Don't mind it. Anyways, she's in here. Just make sure to close the door on your way out."

Romani started to walk away, but paused.

"When I say to close the door on your way out, I'm of course talking to you, Fujimaru-kun and not the Servant there."

Ritsuka looked back at him with surprise, but Romani just smiled and waved as he continued walking away.

"Hm. He must be quite the powerful magician to be able to sense me that easily." Saber spoke up.

They shook it off and entered the room.

Despite Romani saying that she was fine, the "recovering" part was obvious. Many different wires led to patches on her arms and into her hospital gown and she had a mask on providing oxygen to her.

Saber closed the door behind them and Ritsuka walked up to her bed.

He didn't touch her just like he told Romani, but he did sigh.

"She looks a lot worse than I thought. But she's alive, so if he says she's recovering, I'll believe him."

"I can tell that her magical energy is beginning to increase again. Her life force is also stable." Saber spoke up from next to him. "I'll watch over her for the night, so when you're ready, it's fine for you to leave. I'm sure your family will be worried about you if they wake up to find that you're not there."

He couldn't argue with that. And he knew that he would have one hell of a time trying to explain why he was sneaking out in the middle of the night, especially after what had just happened.

"You're right. Thank you, Saber. I'll be going then."

"Take care, Ritsuka-dono."

He was going to say goodbye to Romani on the way out as well but didn't see him. So, he began the long walk back to his house. There was no point in running, he figured. If Irisviel woke up and found that he wasn't there, oh well. Surely, he would be able to find some excuse.

As he walked, his eyes were drawn to the night sky. Even though he was in the city, when he looked up, he could still see stars. He felt nostalgic, remembering not that long ago when he had been doing this very same thing when he had gotten dragged into all of this. A smile crept onto his face, but he wasn't really sure why.

"I guess my wish already came true, huh?"

_Yo…ur…wi...shhhshshhhh…_

That voice sounded in the back of his head again, but it sounded different. It sounded wrong, like it was stuttering.

_I-I… will… wish…wishwishwishwishwishwishwish._

"Agh…" A sudden pain assaulted his head and grew in intensity as the voice grew louder. It sounded like it was coming from every direction at once, as if a bunch of people were yelling right into his ears. "Wha…?"

And then as suddenly as it had started, the voice and pain ceased. And then he heard one more thing, but once again in that beautiful soft-spoken voice.

_Your wish… I'll grant it._

"Ha… ha…" His breathing came in labored gasps and his head felt like it was spinning. He barely held back the feeling of needing to puke. "What… is this damn wish…?"

"Um… Onii-san, are you okay?"

That voice… the voice who had spoken to him about his wish. He heard it, but it seemed so much more real than before. It wasn't inside of his head but rather as if someone was actually speaking to him. Ritsuka slowly raised his head.

Smooth black hair, a small body. But for some reason, when he looked at the face of the girl standing in front of him, he couldn't see it. He blinked. And the person was gone.

Ritsuka shook his head.

"Just what's going on with me lately?"

He managed to make his way home without anymore trouble. The door hadn't been locked again and the lights were still off when he walked inside, so he figured that nobody had woken up.

A yawn escaped his mouth as he climbed the stairs once again and made his way to his room. Sure enough, Rin was spread out just as she was before. Actually, she seemed to be taking up even more of the be than before if that was even possible. Ritsuka threw his jacket and school pants off and didn't bother hanging them back up. He climbed over his little sister and managed to get under his sheets once again.

This time, he had no problem falling asleep. As he considered the happenings of the day, he could only thing once again that his life had become so strange so quickly.

The image of that girl came into his mind, but he still couldn't see her face.

"-"

His brain suddenly felt like it paused. It felt like time stopped around him.

"Eh?"

For some reason, he felt like he just said something strange, but no matter how hard he tried to recall the word that just left his mouth, he couldn't. It felt like his brain itself was rejecting that notion.

Before he could let that feeling overcome him, he shook it off. Really, he just wanted nothing more than to sleep at that moment. After a good night's sleep, he was sure he would feel better.

He closed his eyes and let his consciousness fade away.

* * *

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I know quite a bit happened in a short period of time, but well, happens. I'm not trying to rush any parts of the story, this is just how I originally planned for it to be.**

**Also, I'm naming chapters in terms of arcs for those who haven't noticed. This is the "Holy Grail War" arc as you can see. I enjoy doing that more than coming up with unique names for each chapter.**

**Anyways, I'll see you guys next chapter.**


	4. Interlude - Kingdom of Gold I

**I know this kind of seems weird to be in here, but bear with me. I wanted to publish it as a separate story, but it's meant to be read at the same time with the main story. So, I'm just going to put shorter chapters in throughout. Hope it doesn't throw you off too much. Enjoy.**

* * *

"Wha…? Where?" I open my eyes only to see a foreign land. Trees spread as far as I can see. The humidity is already starting to make droplets of sweat drip down my arms.

I put one arm under me and pushed myself up. Once I was on my feet, I could see the ground under me was mud. Luckily, I'm on a harder patch, so I'm not covered in it. But the question still remains: where am I?

Actually, more importantly, who am I? My name, my family, friends… I can't remember anything. My head started to spin whenever I pushed it too hard to remember, so I just gave up.

A stinging on my right hand brought my attention to it. Who knows what kind of bugs might be in this place? I hope I'm not about to get eaten alive.

Instead of a bite though, there's a strange series of red marks on my hand. I've never seen these before and I can't even begin to decipher what they mean, if anything at all.

As I'm pondering this, I notice the sound of rushing water nearby. My throat feels like it's been through a rough time, so I walk into the trees in the direction of the water. It's so humid, it's almost unbelievable. Am I in a rainforest or something? My hair is beginning to stick to my forehead from the sweat, but this just feels like all the more reason to find this source of water. Hopefully, it'll be clean enough to drink.

I push through some low-hanging branches and find myself on the bank of a river. The water nearest to me is calm, but I can see not even a hundred feet away the water begins flowing substantially faster, seemingly out of nowhere.

Maybe it's dumb to just drink straight out of a river, but I'm parched. And the river looks almost crystal clear. I can see the bottom from where I'm standing, though I don't see any fish or anything swimming around.

I cup my hands and dip it in. Despite the humidity and relative heat of the area, the water is freezing cold. I bring the water to my lips and drink. Instantly my throat feels better as the cold water slides down it. I splash some of the water in my face to wash away the sweat.

As I'm doing this, I finally look down at myself and notice my attire.

I'm wearing a dark navy sailor uniform and a similarly colored skirt. A red ribbon wraps around the neck of my uniform and is neatly tied in the front. A symbol rests on the left side, but I don't recognize the crest from anywhere. I think the name of the school used to be under the crest, but that area is the only area on the entire uniform that was somehow damaged, and I can't read it.

I look back at the water, but nothing is reflected back at me. I can just see straight through it. So much for using that to check my appearance.

Instead I check the pockets of the skirt and, sure enough, I find what looks like a school ID. This might be my key to getting any information about myself. My expectations were too high, it seems though. Most of the information is unreadable due to water damage. The only thing I can make out is the name at the top: Fujimaru Ritsuka. Even the picture is missing, so I still have no way to find out what I look like.

That makes me uncomfortable, but I shake it off. I take one more big gulp from the river before starting to walk alongside it. After all, if worse comes to worst, I might need to camp out for the night and what better place to do so than by a source of water?

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I call out as I walk, hoping that I'm not the only person stranded out here and that someone else will answer my call.

Unfortunately, I hear nothing in return. Even stranger, I notice that I don't hear anything besides the river. No birds, no insects, nothing. That's unsettling to say the least.

There is nothing around. It's as if I was just dropped into the middle of a rainforest and left to fend for myself. And, well, for all I know, maybe that's exactly what happened.

I look up at the sky, trying to find the sun, but I don't see it, just a clear blue sky. It must be morning or getting late then. And since the light didn't look like sunset, I assume it's morning.

After what felt like a couple hours of walking along this river, taking periodic breaks and drinking from it, I finally spot something I can call a destination. A large black obelisk rose far above the trees in the distance. Honestly, it's so tall I can't believe that I didn't see it before now.

The river seems to head straight towards it, which is good for me. If I have to wander away from this river, who knows how long it might be until I find another source of water. However, my stomach soon reminds me that water isn't the only thing humans need to live. I don't know when the last time I ate something was, but I'm suddenly overcome with hunger.

I look around, hoping to find some fruit or something, but all the trees are bare besides their leaves. I consider trying to fish, but for all this time I've been walking along this clear river, I haven't seen a single fish.

Due to my lack of food, I decide to conserve some energy and take a break. If I wear myself out without any access to food, then I'll just die here. Even without my memories, I know what comes first in survival situations.

Once again, I cup my hands and brink some of the river water to my mouth. Even though I took several breaks, my arms and face are still covered in sweat from the humidity. The cold river water feels amazing and I splash my face with it and even dip my arms up to my sleeves into the water.

Since I'm taking a break, I might as well enjoy it. I slip my shoes and socks off and dip my feet into the water. Reflexively, I pull back at first, like when you're checking the temperature of the water in a pool and it's too cold. But I push through and leg my legs dip into the water.

"Ah… So good…"

I'm not sure if I ever went to a spa in my life, but this river didn't lose to any spa. My fatigue was wiped away instantly and I felt like I could keep walking on for miles. Being in this water makes me forget about my hunger for now.

I look forward towards the obelisk. Honestly, it doesn't look like I've made much progress, but I'm hoping that's not true. Either way, even if I am making little progress, it's not like I have any other indication of where to head.

A sigh escapes my mouth, but I smile afterwards. I haven't lost hope, so there really is nothing left but to continue forward. I absentmindedly kick at the water. I'll have to get moving soon and I don't like the thought of having to take my feet out.

I finally decide that it's time to get moving. I'd like to find a slightly better spot to camp out, so I need to make it there before sundown. As I stand and stretch though, I look down the river and see something heading towards me.

"Eh?"

The object is pretty big, at least my size, floating down the river. It's not moving, so I assume it's not a fish or other animal swimming towards me. Though I had walked in the direction where the river started flowing faster, it was clam where I was now, so the object wasn't travelling particularly quickly. I stop and wait for it to get near since it's the only foreign object I've seen besides the giant obelisk.

"That's…"

As the object gets near me, I realize it's… a person? Yes, a person was floating down the river, their face in the water. As that realization hits, I start to panic. If I leave their face in the water, they'll drown for sure, if they haven't already.

Without giving it much thought I jump into the freezing water and wade my way through so I can intercept his path. And, sure enough, he floats right into me. I quickly wade my way back to the shore and get him up on land. I'm not a very strong person, but he's not that heavy. Then I climb out myself.

I roll him over and have to pause for a second. The boy looked a few years older than me, probably in his early twenties. He has golden blonde hair and his only attire is a long white shirt that goes almost to his feet. It's wet and stuck against him, revealing a fit body underneath. I shake my head and press my ear against his chest. His heart is still beating. Next I press my ear near his mouth… and he's still breathing.

It's unbelievable. I must have saved him only seconds after he fell unconsciousness in the river, but that seemed strange. Before he arrived near me, I didn't hear a splash, so he must have fallen in quite a way down. Either way, I didn't see a need to perform CPR on him, so I just pulled him a bit farther from the shore, under the cover of the trees and sat next to him.

Eventually night did begin to fall. I don't know how long I've been sitting with him, but I haven't done much besides occasionally taking a drink from the river. At some point, I let a bit drip into his mouth, which he swallowed every time without waking up.

The moon never comes overhead, even though I'm sure it's several hours into the night by now. Sleeping is pretty troublesome with my stomach constantly reminding me of its need for food, not to mention I'm sleeping on hard dirt. I try to make some sort of makeshift bed using leaves and small branches, but it isn't much more comfortable. At some point, the temperature drops substantially as well. I have no idea how to make a fire, so that's out of the question.

As the temperature drops, it's a cruel reminder that my clothes are still damp since I haven't been moving around. I didn't take them off in case the boy woke up, but I'm regretting that decision now. I also don't relish the idea of sleeping naked outside anyways.

I cover up the boy in leaves and small branches and hope that that's enough to keep him warm through the night. Then I lay on my makeshift bed and pull small branches over myself. This barely keeps me any warmer, but I just hope it'll keep me from freezing to death during the night.

Even through the cold, I eventually drift off into sleep.

I awake to the sound of a crackling fire. Wait… a fire? I begin to panic and sit up quickly. If a person is here, I have nothing to defend myself with. But I stop as a voice reaches my ears.

"Oh, sorry. Did I wake you?"

I turn towards the fire. The fire illuminates the golden hair and crimson eyes of the boy I saved before. The long shirt he had worn was dry now and tied around his waist. Just like I had thought, he looked like he worked out quite a bit, but somehow still maintained a slimmer frame.

"Ah… yes…"

I awkwardly rub the back of my head as I sit up. The first thing I notice is that my clothes are mostly dry. If that's the case, this fire must have been burning for quite a while. I can feel the warmth of the fire throughout my entire body and for the first time since coming here, I feel relaxed.

"Thank you." The boy speaks up and I jump a bit, having been lost in my thoughts just a second ago. "You saved me, right?"

"Ah, I just pulled you out of the river."

He nodded.

"Surely, I would have died had you not pulled me out, though. For that you have my thanks, um…"

"Ah… To be honest, I'm not quite sure what my name is. But, well… I think it's Fujimaru Ritsuka. So, feel free to call me Ritsuka."

"I see. You also lack your memories. I was hoping you could tell me what exactly is going on. I have a vague memory of falling into that river, but nothing before." He sighs.

"I only have memory of waking up in this place this morning. I was walking along this river for a few hours until I found you and took you out. After that, I've just been resting here with you."

The boy leans back against a tree and lets out another sigh.

"I guess it's convenient that we both speak Japanese at least, huh?" He laughs as if nothing is wrong and I can't help but smile at that.

"Um, do you by chance remember your name?" He shakes his head. So, he really is the same as me then. "I see."

He looks up at the night sky in thought before mumbling something under his breath. Then he looks right at me with that radiant smile.

"Gil. You can call me that. I have some vague memory of somebody who I can no longer remember calling me that. Or maybe I was saying it to them. Well, it doesn't really matter. I need something to be addressed by anyways."

Hearing somebody else speak when I've been alone for the whole day, fearing that I would be alone for who knows how long, really puts me at ease.

"Then, Gil it is." I say and give my best smile back.

"Good. So, Ritsuka, you said you were heading along this river, but if neither of us has any idea about this place… did you have a destination in mind?"

I point out towards where I know the obelisk stands. It's impossible to see its sleek black shape in the dark night, but I just want to give him a general sense.

"There's a large black structure over there. It's the only thing I can see that looks like it might be man-made, so I was heading that way. Luckily, the river looks like it heads straight towards it, so if we continue to follow it, we should arrive there."

"Mm. Sounds good." He nods and throws some more twigs and leaves into the fire. "If that's the case, then we should get some sleep. It looks like we have a long day ahead of us. The fire should last long enough to keep us warm until the sun comes up."

And just like that, our conversation ends there. We both do our best to pull some of the twigs and leaves over ourselves to stave off the cold and soon enough I'm drifting into the blackness of sleep once again.

* * *

**Let me know if you guys don't like this. I'm not opposed to not doing it like this.**

**Anyways, each of you have a great day!**


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